Spirit Group first to market with ‘Colours of Beer’
02.10.2008

It’s black, it’s white and it’s red in the middle. It’s the new ‘Colours of Beer’ holder, currently trialling in eight Spirit Group pubs in London as a way of creating theatre around customers’ experience of beer in the on-trade.

Spirit Group is the first pub company to pilot ‘Colours of Beer’, developed with Beautiful Beer. Pubs taking part in the trial are selling a ‘beer holder’ containing six third-pints of different coloured beers for £5.95. Colours of Beer presents beers in six colour categories: White, Blonde, Amber, Red, Brown and Black. Posters, flyers and T-shirts in the pubs create awareness and drive sales of the beer holder, while new beer menus on the pub tables tell customers about beer’s diversity and how to match it with food. The seven-week trial runs until mid-October, though the beer menus are a permanent item in the pubs.

“Colours of Beer’ is an innovative way of presenting beer to our customers,” comments Dan Robinson, Spirit Group operations director. “We already do a great job with beer at Spirit Group; we have more pubs with a Beautiful Beer Award than any other pub company. Colours of Beer was an opportunity to do something different to attract new customers into beer and we jumped at the chance to trial it.”

In total, the eight pubs taking part in Colours of Beer are predicted to sell around 700 beer holders. Total beer sales will be analysed at the end of the trial, along with the feedback from the hundreds of consumers who completed a questionnaire in one of the pubs. Managers were also interviewed, and were generally positive about the initiative, commenting: “This is a good idea, I’d definitely give it nine out of 10”… “we’ve sold the beer holders mainly to tourists, and they’ve gone on to buy a pint of their favourite”… “I’d like to keep the holders but change the beers on offer to make it more flexible.”

Consumer responses show a clear appetite for the beer holder, with comments such as, “I’m trying different brands I wouldn’t normally try”…”never knew there were so many different colours”…”you want to try more beers”…”I like the pretty colours and the variety” and “love the small glasses”. In general, the beer holder was favoured more by occasional beer drinkers, mainly women, rather than regular ones, and also proved popular with tourists in several pubs.

Ros Shiel, PR manager at Beautiful Beer, comments, “Colour has been used successfully as a communications tool by a number of brewers in the UK and in other countries. The ‘Colours of Beer’ trial with Spirit Group has taken elements of those campaigns and created a vehicle that encourages pub customers to try beer, and to expand the range of beers they drink from.”


Notes to editor:
List of participating pubs
The Glassblower, Glasshouse Street, W1
The Globe, Marylebone Road, NW1
The Scarscale, Edwardes Square, W8
The Audley, Mount Street, W1
The Fitzrovia, Goodge Street, W1
The Museum Tavern, Great Russell Street, WC1
The Prince of Wales, Kensington Church Street, W8
The Plumbers Arms, Lower Belgrave Street, SW1

Beautiful Beer is a campaign ‘to encourage more people to choose beer, on more occasions’. It is led by the British Beer & Pub Association, with the support of its member brewers and pub companies.

Spirit Group is the managed division of Punch Taverns, the UK's leading pub company with over 8,400 pubs nationwide. Our 800 high quality pubs across the UK range from high quality dining at Chef & Brewers to our great value Two For One food led outlets. We also operate Wacky Warehouse, the UK's leading indoor playbarn for children and over 80 traditional, authentic London pubs.


For further information contact:
Ros Shiel
PR Manager
ros.shiel@beautifulbeer.com
Tel: 020 7627 9152/07841 694137